Empowering Communities through Design

RESEARCH BACKGROUND Participatory design, as a means of empowering communities and strengthening social networks, can have consequences beyond simply facilitating engagement and revealing tacit knowledge. In the case of a community preparing for the threat of bushfires, these consequences can be quite tangible. RESEARCH CONTRIBUTION This project presented design methods and artefacts in order to engage regional communities in the Southern Otways in Victoria faced with the threat of bushfire. The area is poor in communication infrastructure, including radio, TV, internet and mobile coverage, making the community more vulnerable and dependent on its own resources and networks. This exhibition presented visualisations and mappings created by the community, which revealed 'invisible' site-specific knowledge unique to each household and individual - knowledge of vulnerable people, temporary households, animals, topography, vegetation, potential fire hazards, likely direction of fire, access routes etc. The project uncovered this knowledge through discussion and interaction, which sought to identify and develop methods and scaffolds of action arising from a community of place gathered around a common cause. RESEARCH SIGNIFICANCE The project was undertaken in partnership with the Southern Otways Landcare Network and the Otways CFA Fireguard Co-ordinator.